The UCLA baseball team went into the weekend knowing it had to win at least two of the final three games to solidify its postseason aspirations.
With a pair of shutout victories in the first two games ““ 8-0 on Friday and 7-0 on Saturday ““ the Bruins (31-25, 13-11 Pac-10) managed to obtain a much-needed series win against California (33-19-2, 12-12) at Evans Diamond in Berkeley.
In the final game of the series on Sunday, the Bruins lost 7-6 in 10 innings on a walk-off home run by Josh Satin.
But the two wins helped the Bruins end their up-and-down regular season on a positive note ““ UCLA won seven of its last 10 games, and six of its final eight conference games.
The shutouts “were both obviously big wins,” pitcher Tim Murphy said. “We felt like we needed to win the series. One game would have been pushing it for (a chance at reaching) regionals. Winning the first two and the series, especially on the road against a pretty high-ranked team, gave us a high chance of going into regionals. We accomplished our goal.”
Murphy played a big part in Friday’s win, throwing 144 pitches in his second complete-game shutout of the season. He struck out twice as many batters (10) as he allowed base hits (5), and he has now thrown 16 and 2/3 consecutive innings without allowing a run.
“You just want to give your team a chance to win,” Murphy said. “Getting a complete-game shutout, which doesn’t happen too often, is not something you strive for. The main focus is on giving the team a chance to win.”
Aside from the solid pitching, the Bruins also had a balanced attack at the plate.
Eight of the nine players in the batting order Friday were able to register at least one hit.
After scoring two runs in the third inning, the offense put the game out of reach with six runs in the seventh, highlighted by a two-run home run from second baseman Alden Carrithers.
On Saturday, the Bruin offense jumped all over Golden Bear starter Craig Bennigson in the first inning. Bennigson was only able to retire two batters before exiting the game with his team trailing 4-0.
“We were going up against tough pitching this weekend,” first baseman Casey Haerther said. “We were aggressive early in the count and everyone had quality at-bats. We strung them all together and put up runs early. This allowed our pitchers to get comfortable and take two out of three from them this weekend.”
The early run support proved to be more than enough support for the Bruin pitching staff, as a combination of three pitchers matched Murphy’s outing to seal the 7-0 win and secure the series win.
Sophomore right-handed pitcher Charles Brewer picked up his team-leading eighth victory by throwing 5 and 2/3 innings of three-hit ball and striking out four. Left-handers Rob Rasmussen and Brendan Lafferty came out of the bullpen to combine for 3 and 1/3 innings of hitless relief.
With the series win already locked, the Bruins fell 7-6 in extra innings on Sunday.
After being shutout by UCLA in consecutive games, Cal tried to return the favor by holding the Bruin offense scoreless through the first seven innings.
But the Bruins woke up in grand fashion in the eighth.
With the bases loaded and his team trailing 4-0, coach John Savage summoned Haerther, the team-leader in home runs, to come off the bench and pinch-hit for catcher Brent Dean. Haerther crushed a 1-1 pitch over the left-center field wall for a dramatic game-tying grand slam.
“Coach gave me the day off, but I told him I had to come in to pinch-hit if he needed it,” Haerther said. “The situation came up, and I got a pitch to hit. It was a pretty exciting experience to tie the game.”
The Bruins added another pair of runs in the ninth inning, but Lafferty was unable to make them hold up, allowing two runs in the bottom of the ninth and then giving Satin a home run in the bottom of the 10th.
“It was as important a weekend as we’ve had all year,” Savage said. “We needed to win ball games and win the series. We came out and won Friday and Saturday. I thought (our success) was a very good combination of pitching and defense. If we want to go far in playoffs, we have to be able to pitch and play defense.”